There are many challenges that businesses and corporate organizations are faced with daily. There are challenges to do more, plan some more, and accomplish even more tasks. Being able to improve workflow for a corporate organization can be vital to helping to keep efficient, save money, and have motivated and keen employees. As such, many psychologists, as well as business experts have looked into what needs to be done to help to improve workflow and keep the business working at its most efficient.
If you think that the team needs to be up all hours of the day, in order to get things done, then it is time to think again. Here are some pretty surprising ways that can help to improve daily workflow in a large corporation. Rolling it down to the rest of your business can improve things starting from the top.
Stop Multitasking
It can seem a little counterintuitive to say that you should stop multitasking. Surely you are getting more done when you are working on more than one thing at once? In fact, when there are several complex tasks to be working on, it can obstruct the daily workflow of the business quite severely. Our minds can go into overload when they have to think about different tasks, and keep switching back and forth. This will actually lead to less productivity across all projects, which isn’t going to be a good thing for the business at the end of the day. So instead, it is best to focus on one task at a time. Really focus and break the tasks down. Don’t let others distract you until you are ready to move onto the next one. This is such an important message to send down to team members, as the mindset of multitasking can be damaging, though we think it is doing more.
Communicate Better
Communication is something that is crucial in business, and crucial for productivity at work. If you have members of the team that aren’t clear on the tasks that they need to do, or they don’t understand the goals, then they won’t be able to get things done properly. They may put the task off as they are unsure, which isn’t going to be a good thing for productivity and workflow for the business. The good news is that there are communication tools that you can use for your corporation, such as a calendar tool like Namely. This can help everyone keep up to speed, keep informed, and keep organized. There are also tools like Slack that you can use, to help to share documents, ask questions, and send updates. If you have a large team or perhaps a lot of the team that work remotely, then this could be an option for you.
Get Software to Help
On a similar note talking about tools that can help, there are also different kinds of software that are going to help and make a difference. For example, case management software is used by legal professionals day in and day out, to help to maximize efficiency and dramatically improve workflow. Something like this can be used on-site, as well as in the Cloud, so again, works well if you have a team that works flexibly. There are several other tools of software that will help, it will just depend on the areas where your team or corporation need to be focused on.
Use Collaboration Tools
There are studies that have shown that email isn’t something that is as effective of a tool for collaboration as it has been seen to be in the past. Employees can be interrupted by email every few minutes, which is something that really hinders productivity. There is something in human nature to just want to see what the email is about, if it pops up on the screen. So as a channel of communication, it can be a pretty poor one, especially if you are needing some pretty immediate decisions.
So instead of losing information and tasks in the abyss that can be an email inbox, think about using a cloud-based collaboration tool to help. For something like managing workflow, as an example, it allows you to create some details tasks and then assign out who will be doing what. Having a platform like that, that is intuitive to help you trigger some tasks based on several options that are available. You can also track the projects and how things are going, and you can also manage who is able to see what.
Be Transparent
If you want to make changes for your business, then you need to go ahead and say it. The same goes for all of those people working with you. If they have some concerns or think that there is too much on their plate, then it makes sense that they should be able to tell you and not be afraid to tell you. If you or your employees are a little bit afraid to talk about what is on and the things that you have on your minds, then it will be a massive distraction, slowing things down, and hindering the productivity of the workday.
Keep Your Desk Organized
From a psychological point of view, if you have a cluttered workplace, then it can lead to a cluttered mind. It can be hard to work efficiently when you don’t know where things are or you have to clear space to even sit down and work. So again, this should be a message to send out to the team and make it as part of your business training. Encouraging a team to take a few minutes each day to sort through papers and get organized can make a difference. Encourage them to update their task lists and go through emails to clear off the ones that have been completed. When you take time to get rid of clutter, then it will help to improve efficiency and workflow.
Take Breaks
Unsurprisingly, taking regular breaks can help us when we are working. It can be easy to think that we can keep going to get the job done, but that can hinder productivity. In fact, there are studies behind it all that show that taking regular breaks can actually improve your business workflow, as well as increase how easy it is to focus on a task, especially if there is one that is long and can take quite a while. Something small like going to grab a drink or a quick snack can make a difference. If you can get out for a walk during lunch, for example, then it can improve your focus for when you come back, as your mind will be clearer. Again, this is a great thing to do if you have a team of people to train them. Let them know that taking breaks will be fine; it can actually be good for them.
Improve Employee Morale
If you have a team that enjoy coming into work and feel like a vital part of the team, then it can massively help the efficiency of how they work. It can make a massive difference. So one thing to think about is what you can do to make sure that you help to increase employee morale. It could be anything from celebrating the holidays with your team, as well as celebrating special events and birthdays. You can get to know one another through these kinds of things, but it can also make a big difference to how valued your team feel. Celebrating company achievements with your team is also a good idea, as it can help to show you what their hard work does. Taking steps to improving employee morale is something that really is critical for improved workflow and productivity.
Leave Work at Work
There will no doubt be that some employees will take their work home with them. They might think that they are getting extra work done and think that they are improving daily workflow by doing so. In actual fact, this is not true. Instead, an employee’s home life can suffer as a result, and if there is a lack of breaks, then it can lead to exhaustion as the work won’t get done, or won’t get done to a very good standard. So this is another thing to reiterate with your team; keep work at work. You want to have a happy and healthy team working with you, and having them work all hours of the day isn’t going to do anything.
It does take some time to stop what you are currently doing and change the current business processes that you have. It does take some time to rethink things, and recalibrate on the assignments that you have to get done. So keep reminding your team and those working with you of the goals that you have as a company, and that can go a long way to help working to be much more effective and help to improve the workflow of your business each day.
